The basic concept of the Linux-VServer solution is to separate the user-space environment into distinct units (sometimes called Virtual Private Servers) in such a way that each VPS looks and feels like a real server to the processes contained within.

# emerge vserver-sources

After the vserver-sources are installed it's time to configure them using make menuconfig.. Below is a common configuration for 2.1.1 and above. If you are using 2.0.x some configuration options may not be present.

# cd /usr/src/linux-<KERNELVERSION>-vserver-<VSERVERVERSION>
# make menuconfig

Linux VServer --->
(Do not enable the legacy options)
  [ ] Enable Legacy Kernel API
  [ ] Enable Legacy Networking Kernel API
(Read help text)
  [ ] Remap Source IP Address
  [*] Enable COW Immutable Link Breaking
  [ ] Enable Virtualized Guest Time
  [*] Enable Proc Security
  [*] Enable Hard CPU Limits
  [*]   Avoid idle CPUs by skipping Time
  [*]   Limit the IDLE task
      Persistent Inode Tagging (UID24/GID24)  --->
  [ ] Tag NFSD User Auth and Files
  [*] Enable Inode Tag Propagation
  [*] Honor Privacy Aspects of Guests
  [ ] VServer Debugging Code

File systems  --->
  <*> Reiserfs support
  [*]   ReiserFS extended attributes

/dev/hdb1 /vservers reiserfs noatime,attrs 0 0

After you've built and installed the kernel, update your boot loader and finally reboot to see if the kernel boots correctly.

(Building the kernel)
# make
(Installing)
# make modules_install
# cp arch/<arch>/boot/bzImage /boot/kernel-<KERNELVERSION>-vserver-<VSERVERVERSION>
(Edit bootloader config file as required and)
# reboot

To maintain your virtual servers you need the util-vserver package which contains all necessary programs and many useful features.

# emerge >=sys-cluster/util-vserver-0.30.212

You have to run the vprocunhide command after every reboot in order to setup /proc permissions correctly for vserver guests. An init script has been installed by util-vserver. To use it you should add it to the default runlevel:

# rc-update add vprocunhide default
# /etc/init.d/vprocunhide start

You have to download a vserver prepared stage3/4 from one of our mirrors. Those stages are located under the experimental/<arch>/vserver/ directory. Since a stage3/4 contains a complete root filesystem you can use the template build method of util-vserver. However, this method is only available since util-vserver-0.30.211, so make sure you have the right version installed.

You have to choose a context ID for your vserver (dynamic context IDs are discouraged) as well as the necessary network device information (In this example eth0 is configured with 192.168.1.253/24 and the context ID is equivalent to the last two parts of the virtual servers IP).

# vserver myguest build \
  --context 1253 \
  --hostname gentoo \
  --interface eth0:192.168.1.253/24 \
  -m template -- \
    -d gentoo \
    -t /path/to/stage4-<arch>-<version>.tar.bz2

You should be able to start and enter the vserver by using the commands below. If you miss commands like mount or dmesg you should emerge util-linux inside your virtual server as the vserver profile doesn't ship this package by default.

# vserver myguest start
# vserver-stat
CTX   PROC    VSZ    RSS  userTIME   sysTIME    UPTIME NAME
0       90   1.4G 153.4K  14m00s11   6m45s17   2h59m59 root server
1252     2     3M   286    0m00s45   0m00s42   0m02s91 myguest
# vserver myguest enter
# ps ax
PID   TTY      STAT   TIME COMMAND
    1 ?        S      0:00 init [3]
22887 ?        Ss     0:00 /usr/sbin/syslog-ng
20496 pts/0    S      0:00 /bin/bash -login
20508 pts/0    R+     0:00 ps ax
# logout

You can start certain guests during boot. Each guest can be assigned a MARK. Now everything you have to do is configure these MARKs in the guests configuration and add the approriate init scripts to the default runlevel.

(Do this for every guest you want to start)
# mkdir -p /etc/vservers/myguest/apps/init
# echo "default" > /etc/vservers/myguest/apps/init/mark

# rc-update add vservers.default default

The script vesync will help you to keep the metadata cache and overlays in sync. vemerge is a simple wrapper for emerge in guests.

(Sync metadata for 'myguest')
# vesync myguest
(Sync metadata for all guests)
# vesync --all
(Sync 'myoverlay' for all guests)
# vesync --all \
  --overlay /usr/local/overlays/myoverlay \
  --overlay-host rsync://rsync.myhost.com/myoverlay \
  --overlay-only
(emerge app-editors/vim in 'myguest')
# vemerge myguest -- app-editors/vim -va

Gentoo guests can share packages to save compilation time. In order to use shared packages, you have to create a central directory for packages on the host. We will use /var/cache/vpackages on the host and mount it to /usr/portage/packages in every guest.

# mkdir -p /var/cache/vpackages
# $EDITOR /etc/vservers/myguest/fstab
(Add this line at the end)
/var/cache/vpackages /usr/portage/packages none bind,rw 0 0

Now you can use vupdateworld to update every guest. The command is equivalent to something like emerge --deep --update --newuse world depending on command line options.

(Pretend update for 'myguest')
# vupdateworld myguest -- -vp
(Update 'myguest' using binary packages)
# vupdateworld myguest -- -k
(Update all guests using binary packages)
# vupdateworld --all -- -k

After a successful update you can easily update all configuration files with vdispatch-conf. It is a simple wrapper for dispatch-conf and behaves exactly the same.

(Update configuration files for 'myguest')
# vdispatch-conf myguest
(Update configuration files for all guests)
# vdispatch-conf --all

Please feel free to contact the author or file a bug on Bugzilla in case of any problems.